The Blog Before Christmas

2011 Dec Blog

Oh! to be able to keep up with a regular blog. I can’t say that updating Facebook has consumed much of my time. I have given time to the New Stapleford Community Centre website http://newscomcen.co.uk/ and have spent some time on my own website and associated gallery http://www.theoaksphotos.com/ and http://gallery.theoaksphotos.com/#home. In fact my website has been radically transformed and is on its way to becoming more like a blog.

The other factor that has reduced blogging is that our outings and photographic expeditions have reduced in number since 22^nd October, as the weather has begun to change and possibly SAD has kicked in. SAD is more probably more accurately spelled CBB (can’t be bothering.)

However, a number of things have happened and some photographs have been taken since the wedding.

On the 25^th October it was Irene’s birthday. Sally sent a very colourful and useful gift. There was a trip to the garden centre and then we celebrated the occasion by an evening meal with Jan and Lawrence at Bartlewood Lodge carvery. It was a dark, wet evening. The queues were long the food was a reasonable price and good.

Our next event was the bonfire. Each year the council allow us to have a bonfire on the allotment. This year it was on bonfire night. We burn the old wood that has been stored throughout the year and Irene adds the branches from the pruning that she does as the fire blazes. The fire was quite small this year, but burned furiously. We left as the fire burned out and the rain came.

Early in December Joni and Fiona returned. They did very well in bringing a largish van load of possessions all the way from Scotland. Most of them are stored in Fiona’s parents’ double garage, but we have a fair amount of them stored in various parts of the house. To celebrate their safe return we took them to Bartlewood; this time we went at lunch, which was quieter. Fiona stayed with her parents for a week, returned to complete some work and returned with their car a little while ago.

During the time Fiona was away we went on an expedition to find a model railway in Cromford. This was because dancing friends said that we should visit. However, what none of us knew was that the exhibition was only open in the summer months. We walked along the Cromford Canal, stopping only to snap the village rugby match, but the growing cold and fading light bought an end to our walk.

On the 24^th we had another visit to Nottingham University. The lighting was good and squirrels were posing.

 

The main purpose of the visit was to see the Lowry exhibition in the Arts Centre Gallery. In case you do not know, Lowry has been accused of only being able to paint matchstick figures. He is however a very skilled draftsman with a good understanding of composition. He portrays the industrial scene of is day with feeling and a degree of accuracy (although this cannot always be trusted as he uses objects as metaphors). It is unlikely that such an exhibition will be staged again in the near future as many works have been loaned from numerous private collections. This was a unique opportunity and gave us much to ponder on. We also learned a word; 'quotidian' which is an adjective meaning 'ordinary, common place...'

By 25^th November I was satisfied that the Bexton sidings were complete and dragged a studio light up to the loft to make a photographic record. The little engine and its livestock wagons do not go far. From the sidings they travel into a tunnel under the back of the main line and out along a bland piece of track to terminate at the abattoir station before reversing back empty for the next load of livestock.

On the 1^st December we braved a trip to Nottingham to do some non-online Christmas shopping and to choose before purchasing some things online. It was cold but the sun was bright with plenty of blue. While taking a photograph to show the brightness of the sky the bottom half of the picture was in shade. I used the computer to convert this part to black and white. I feel that this enhances the contrast.

Having staggered through a couple of shops by 12 o’clock we were about ready for our annual Christmas coffee in ‘Waterstones’. Fortunately they house a ‘Costa’ café which did a beautiful triple chocolate muffin full of rich chocolate sauce. 

We did a very good deal on a book at the same time and selected another book for online shopping. After our break we headed for ‘Market Square’, passed the colourful cabin shops (German Market) and were awed by the high flying, rotating ride.

 

In contrast to the Christmas shopping rush was the ‘Occupy Nottingham’ camp. This was tidily arranged in a corner of the square and occupied by a fair number of anti-capitalist protesters.

From here we headed on up to the Victoria Shopping Centre. On the way, at one spot, autumn colours were still in evidence and I photographed the scene and posterized the image to intensify the colours.

Victoria Centre was busy and decorated for Christmas.

 

They have a good indoor market. I could have spent a fortune on CDs of bygone pop music. Irene did her purchases while I photographed colourful market stall scenes.

From the shops we headed for the ‘Nottingham Contemporary’ 

(http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/). A German artist called Klaus Weber was exhibiting in all four galleries. We were impressed by his ‘honey pictures’. Yes, true, the media was honey. The two works of art have to be kept perfectly flat and not shaken in transit as the honey would move. The idea of the pictures was to show scenes of cooperative human activity using the product of social honey bees. The artist also had curated two other galleries. He had chosen pieces from the basements of other galleries; in particular, the ‘Science Museum’ and the ‘Tate’. His plan was to exhibit them creatively so that the visitor would have to interact with pieces and look for patterns in the arrangements. We were fascinated by such things as amphora being displayed on red plastic buckets and a bison head being displayed in its wooden packing case. At the end of the last gallery was the artist’s collection of statues of monkeys staring at human skulls or sitting on books. Apparently some artist had created one to mock Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and copies were made, each slightly different. Each object was perched on its own transparent tower and there was a feeling that this was a single act of worship, but we were able to wander amongst them (but not towing the shopping trolley behind us). We were left wondering what Klaus Weber’s view of evolution was. Then it was time to go home.


Two days later, a little later than planned, Irene and I put the allotment to bed. For me this meant emptying the shed. Cleaning it out, cleaning, oiling and replacing our tools to survive the winter until work begins again in March 2012.

It feels distinctly like winter, although we lack the snow of last year. I end this blog with my latest picture, showing storm clouds near the house. I like the contrast between the darkness and the sunlight.